


I'm the Black Paladin

by Ralyssene118



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012), Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Black Paladin Keith (Voltron), Episode: s03e03 The Hunted, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Platonic Relationships, Red Paladin Lance (Voltron), Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-10-13 04:26:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17481149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ralyssene118/pseuds/Ralyssene118
Summary: (Based off of the Antarctica scene in Rise of the Guardians) Keith and the team have just been separated from themselves and are trying desperately to find each other during the events of "The Hunted" episode (3x03). In this story, Lotor finds Keith and tries to talk him into joining his side, they are both half-Galra after all. When Keith refuses, Keith is left without a lion to figure his next move while feeling like he has failed. With a little help from Shiro and is team, will Keith be able to become the Black Paladin he wants to be?





	I'm the Black Paladin

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time posting on Ao3 so hopefully that goes over well. I've been on Fan-fiction for quite a while (under the same name) and wanted to try posting on here too.
> 
> I watched Rise of the Guardians and thought this would be a great scene between Lotor and Keith. And so I wrote this. I tried to stay canon as much as I could, but it didn't work out as well so this story is sorta canon. :)
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I do not own Voltron. I only own the idea and the not official canon parts.

Keith was frantic. He could not find anybody. He tried the comms again and received nothing but static. He sighed.  
_Patience Yields Focus._  
How were they going to get out of this? Usually, at this point Shiro would have a plan. Well, Shiro would have had a plan before he led the team on a wild goose chase. One more reason he should not have ever been the leader of this team.  
Suddenly, a voice came on over the comms. “I thought this might happen.”  
Keith startled by the noise, turned the Black lion around to face…...Lotor?  
“They never really believed in you. I was just trying to show you that.” Lotor’s face showed up on Keith’s dash. Keith expected Lotor to have a smug look on his face, but instead he looked genuinely sincere. “But I understand.”  
Keith readied Black for a shot. “You don't understand anything!” he yelled, thrusting the lever forward, Black’s beam firing true.  
“No?” came the response as Lotor’s shield took the blow. “I don't know what it's like to be cast out?” Lotor shot from his ship, Black easily dodging.“To not be believed in.”  
Another beam was shot from both sides, colliding in a spectacular burst of light.  
“To long for a family.”  
_What?_ Keith stopped his shot that he was preparing. There was too much going on. He needed to focus. _Patience yields focus._  
“All those years in the shadows I thought, no one else knows what this feels like. But now I see I was wrong.”  
_What? What was he doing?_  
“We don't have to be alone, Keith.” Lotor admitted.  
“I’m not alone. I have my team.”  
“A team that hasn’t found you yet. They are too busy finding themselves. Why wouldn’t they come after you, the leader, first?”  
“They’re doing what we have been trained to do…”  
“They don’t believe in you, Keith.” Lotor interrupted “I heard your comms as you flew into this planet. You can’t even form Voltron.”  
Keith had nothing to say. He was right.  
“Voltron may not believe in you, but I do.” Lotor supplied. “And I know the rest of the universe will too.”  
Keith was too surprised that the only thing that he could think of to say was “You. Believe in me.”  
“Yes!” Lotor exclaimed “Look at what we can do together!”  
Keith looked around. The air around him was still glowing, as little bits from the explosion flitted around them.  
“What is this?”  
“Quintessence, Black paladin. Pure quintessence.” Lotor took a deep breath, still smiling a sweet smile. “We are similar Keith, much more similar than you think. We are both half-breeds, who have never fit in with the societies around us. We both have similar intentions. We both want what is best for our people and for the universe.”  
Keith looked around to see where the quintessence bits were floating to, to try and see if there was a trail, a trail his team could find and…..  
“We can harvest this quintessence. Use it to power the Galra Empire.”  
“And why would I..”  
“We can make them believe in us.” Lotor interrupted Keith again. “With the power that we can have together. We'll give them a world where everything, everyone is..”  
“Enslaved. To us.” Keith deadpanned.  
Lotor looked hurt. “Not enslaved. Liberated. They’ll believe in both of us.”  
Keith stared at him, not believing what Lotor was saying. Memories of the other dimension Alteans and the non-cogs ran through his head. “No, they'll fear both of us. And that's not what I want.” Keith turns Black and starts to fly away. “Now for the last time, leave me and my team alone.”  
Lotor seemed to deflate at the last sentence and Keith let out a sigh of relief as Lotor’s face disappeared from his dash.  
“Very well. You want to be left alone? Done. But first…”  
Suddenly Keith hears a familiar voice. It’s only one word, his name. It’s the only thing the voice says, but with those five letters, Keith realized how unprepared he was for this.  
_Is that...Shiro?_  
The voice repeats his message, _“Keith”_ and Keith slams the button on Black’s dash, alerting the other party to a request to video chat. “Let him go!” Keith yells desperately.  
Lotor’s face appears on the screen.  
“What do you want?” Keith demanded.  
“You, Keith.”  
Keith pinched his lips shut to keep himself from replying.  
“You and your team have a nasty habit of interfering. To keep you team in check, one of the Black paladins needs to be with me. Now, hand yourself over and I'll let him go.”

Keith could just hear Lance’s voice in his head _“Don’t do this, Keith.”_ knowing all the while that if Lance was the Black Paladin, he would give himself up anyways, no matter how much the team told him to not to. It was in his stupid self-sacrificing nature. Pidge and Hunk would keep trying to find a way to save Shiro and blow up Lotor’s ship in the process. He would have rushed in to rescue their captured paladin, but he couldn't afford to do anything rash now. He was no longer Red’s Paladin and he had already messed up this mission. _Horribly._ Shiro would have never done anything like this. He was worthless as a leader and with Allura piloting Blue and Lance doing amazing in Red, sooner or later someone was going to be without a lion. Shiro needs that spot more than him, more than anyone. And to add on to that, nobody likes that a Galran is part of Team Voltron anyway. He had gotten used to the suspicious looks he received from liberated planets on occasions, but without a Galran team member, maybe the team can do better at gaining allies if he was not there.

“Ok, Lotor. You win.”  
“Perfect.” Lotor purred. “Come unarmed. Leave everything, including those sneaky bayards of yours, in your lion and just land on my ship.”  
Keith ended the transmission and stood up from the pilot’s seat. He had to brace himself against the cockpit as Black pleaded with him to not go.  
“I’m sorry Black, I have to.” He sighed, seeming to have placated his Lion for now. “I only said I would do this until we got Shiro back and now, here’s our chance.” He grabbed the black bayard and placed it reverently on the seat, _Shiro’s seat._ “I _have_ to take it.” He put his helmet on and opened the bay doors. Lotor’s ship was right beneath him. “Take care of the others for me, ok.” Keith smile and jumped, landing in the small space of Lotor’s fighter. Lotor held out some rope and motioned for Keith’s hands. Keith held them out willingly, wincing as the rope rubbed at his wrists, causing burns even through the undershirt of his armour. “Alright.” Keith declared, “Now where’s Shiro?”  
“Now, now, I will let him out in a minute. I can’t make this too easy for you” Lotor piloted them away from Black and towards a mess of rocks and floating earth. He landed on one of these and hauled Keith out of the ship with him.

After a while, Keith started to get suspicious. “Where’s Shiro?”  
Lotor pulled out a recording device and pressed play letting Shiro’s voice penetrate the silence of the planet.  
_No._ “NO!” Keith tried to attack Lotor, but was brought down easily on account of being restrained.  
“You said you would let him go.”  
“No.” Lotor purred. “You said you wanted to be alone.”  
Lotor pushed Keith so he was kneeling before him. “So be alone!”  
“No!” Keith yells again, trying to get out of the ropes, but suddenly, Lotor’s hands grabbed his helmet.  
Keith’s terrified eyes met Lotor’s glee filled ones. “Sweet Dreams, Black Paladin.”  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Keith blinked awake and tried to find his surroundings, which was weird, because there didn’t seem to be any. He was floating amongst the stars, billions and billions of stars.  
_Where the quiznack was he?_  
“Lotor!?”  
No answer.  
“Lance! Pidge! Hunk! Allura!”  
No answer.  
“Shiro?” Keith whispered into the never-ending space.  
Still no answer, not that he was expecting one.  
“Someone? Please….”  
“Keith.”  
Keith whipped around to try to find the voice but there was no one there.  
“Keith.” it said again.  
Keith recognized the voice this time. “Shiro?” he asked. He looked around and still could not find Shiro.  
“Shiro. I’m so sorry.”  
He sank to his knees.  
“Lotor was right.” he sighed. “I make a mess of everything.”  
He seemed genuinely surprised that his voice had started to hitch. He had not cried in a long time, since Shiro had left for Kerberos. And now….  
“I know you wanted this for me Shiro, but I’m not you. I can’t lead them like you. I’m not meant to be the Black Paladin.”

Suddenly, all the stars around him began to go brighter and brighter until Keith had to close his eyes against the brightness. He looked up when he thought he heard something close to Shiro panting in the distance. He did see Shiro, but he also saw himself. All around him was the memory of what had happened the first time they fought Zarkon.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
_Keith looked down at the four big cats, if you could call them that, stalking Shiro. There was no way that Keith could get to Shiro in time. He looked around and saw the Black Lion._  
He rushed up and put his hand on Black’s muzzle. “I know I’m not Shiro, but he’s in trouble. We need to help him.” Black just sat there.  
Keith remembered waiting, hoping that Black would be able to help him. _The memory jumped ahead and Keith was suddenly behind the controls of the Black Lion, Shiro_  
looking up gratefully at him.  
As the memory changed around Keith, he heard Shiro’s voice. _“If I don’t make it out of here, I want you to lead Voltron.”_  
Then, Keith found himself on the Black Lion's ramp, in front of his team, a memory of what had happened just hours earlier.  
_“No. I don’t accept this.” Keith heard himself saying._  
A gasp from the team.  
“You must.” Allura replies. “The Black Lion has chosen you.”  
“I can’t replace Shiro.” Keith yelled. “You guys were right. I’m the loner. I’m not the leader Shiro thought I was.”  
A tender hand on his shoulder surprises him. “Keith.”  
Keith looked up at the hand and then at the person attached to it. Of all the people Keith would have pegged to give him a pep talk right now, he would never have guessed Lance.  
“No one can replace Shiro, but the Black Lion wouldn’t choose anybody it didn’t feel was worthy to lead Voltron. I respect its choice, you should too.”  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With the last sentence still echoing through the space, the memories and the brightness faded leaving Keith standing in the expanse of stars once again. Except he was not alone.  
“Shiro?” he asked, looking at the person standing before him. Except Shiro really did not seem all there. He seemed ethereal and had a purple aura around him.  
“I know this must seem confusing to you.” Shiro’s voice echoed across the space.  
“What is this place? Where are we?”  
“Let me explain. Since our fight with Zarkon, I’ve been here.”  
“When you disappeared?”  
“Yes. I didn’t where I was or how much time has passed. My physical form was gone. I existed on another realm.” Shiro took a breath. “I died Keith.”  
Keith was too startled by this turn of events to say anything. Shiro was dead....?  
“But the Black Lion somehow retained my essence.”  
“Is...that where we are? In the Black Lion’s consciousness?” Keith asked.  
“Yes, Keith.”  
“So, what Lotor had.”  
“A copy, an illusion.”  
Gradually, everything started to settle in Keith’s brain. “I can’t do this Shiro.”  
Shiro smiled at him. “Do what Keith?”  
“Lead. I know that is what you wanted, but I just can’t. Not…”  
“Not what?”  
“Not without you.”  
“You’ve done lots of things without me before.”  
“That was different. I knew you were alive, even when everybody said you were not.”  
“That is one of your strengths, Keith. You believe in and trust people so deeply.”  
“And it hurts more when they leave. Everybody leaves.”  
“Keith…”  
“I just want to have a family, and I thought I found one out here.”  
“What makes you think you’ve lost it.”  
“I lost you didn’t I?” Keith cried. He took a deep breath and continued. “The team doesn’t trust me. We can’t even form Voltron and I don’t know how to fix it.”  
“Keith.”  
Keith looked up at his brother who had put a comforting hand on his shoulder.  
“Keith, the Black Lion is the Leader of Voltron, the decisive head. A leader should be able to stay calm and make decisions based on the information given. Right?  
“Yes, but all of my decisions have been wrong.”  
“All of them?”  
Keith nodded yes.  
“You found Lotor and technically you found me too. Those are both good things.”  
“But the team...”  
“You’ll find they can be pretty forgiving. Voltron is a combined force. You don’t have to do this on your own.”  
Keith looked up to see Shrio start to fade away.  
“Shiro?”  
“Just believe Keith, in the team and in yourself.”  
Suddenly, Keith heard a roar above him. 

Surprisingly, it sounded like it was not that far away. Keith looked up in awe at the glowing eyes of the Black Lion, and to Keith’s complete bewilderment, Lance.  
“What are you doing down there, team leader?”  
“Lance?”  
“The one and only.”  
“How did you find me?”  
“I didn’t. I was trying to find somebody when all of a sudden Red took over.  
Keith looked up at Red and was amazed to feel the Red lion’s protectiveness flow through him again. He thought there was no way that he still had a bond with Red after all this. Keith smiled but also realized Lance was still talking.  
“...and found Black. Black led us here. So, what happened back there?”  
“Lotor found me.”  
“Lotor? Isn’t that a good thing? That’s why we rushed into this planet anyway right?”  
Keith didn’t answer.  
“Keith, where’s Lotor now?  
“He got away.” Keith mumbled.  
“Keith…?”  
“This is all my fault.” Keith finally whispered. Lance could barely hear him but he could feel the guilt coming off his teammate in waves. “I followed him right into his trap. Everyone warned me, but I didn't listen. I put the entire team in jeopardy.  
“Yeah, you kinda did.” Lance answered with a hint of sarcasm. And with an impulsive move that only Red could have told him to do, he jumped down to Keith, putting his blasters on to slow the fall. “But now we gotta fix it.”  
Keith looked up at Lance. “You’re right. Wait, we?”  
Lance took Keith by the shoulders. “Yeah, we’re a team, mullet. That’s what a team does.”  
Keith smiled.  
“First thing we gotta do is get out of this hole. Can you fly?”  
Keith turned on his thrusters but only one sputtered to life.  
“No, it must have gotten damaged somehow.”  
“All right then. Hold on.” Lance’s thrusters came to life and he flew out of the crevice at top speed. He emerged at the top of the cave with some rope. Red crawled as close as she dared to the top of the crevice and Lance tied the rope off on her paw and let the rest fall into the crack. Keith had to laugh a little at how curious Red seemed to think this rescue operation was.  
Keith jumped up and grabbed at the rope and started to climb.  
“Hey Lance.”  
“Yeah?”  
“Thanks for coming to get me.”  
“Did you think I wouldn’t?”  
No answer.  
“Keith?”  
“To be honest, I thought no one would find me.”  
“Keith, you are the leader. If no one ended up finding you I bet Red would have. I swear she has a sixth sense for knowing when you are in danger.”  
Keith laughed. “That she does.”  
Keith finally made it to the top and Lance dragged him into a hug, which Keith eventually returned.  
“Too bad Pidge didn’t see that. She’s never going to believe me.”  
That brought up a good point. _Where was the rest of the team?_  
“Hailing Keith and Lance….”  
“Allura!” Red and Black paladins answered.  
“Keith, Lance, I’m so glad we found you.”  
“Not as glad as we are.” Lance replied. “Wait hold on, who is we?”  
“Us buddy.” Hunk supplied. “I found Pidge and Allura found us a few minutes later.”  
“Yeah, she was able to bond with her lion.” Pidge piped up.  
“Amazing.” Keith expressed, awe apparent in his voice. “How did you do it?”  
“I just had to get into a Lance-like mindset and stop thinking so much.” Allura stated.  
“Yeah, think like Lance.” Lance said, proud of himself. Then it seemed to dawn on him. “Wait a minute. Are you calling me dumb?”  
“No.” Allura denied “I’m calling you a natural.”  
“Naturally dumb.” Hunk added.  
“Yeah, he was born with it.” Pidge supplied.  
“Look, I’m glad we’re all making fun of Lance,” Keith said, looking at Lance to gage his reaction and saw to his astonishment, that Lance looked rather down. _Interesting, he must take things to heart a lot more often._ “But if I am being completely honest, Lance is pretty smart. He’s the one that found me after all.”  
Keith was rewarded with Lance’s surprised face turning around to meet him.  
“Hey guys, Allura has a way out if we could all just get in our Lions.”  
“Oh right yeah.” Lance said, jumping into action and running up Red’s ramp.  
Keith followed Lance’s lead running into Black’s cockpit.  
“Hey girl. I’m glad to see you too.” Keith said as the cockpit around him seemed to purr.  
“Follow me, I know a way out. Amazingly, I see no sign of Lotor.”  
“Oh he’s long gone, trust me. Right now, let’s just focus on getting the Lions back to the Castle.”  
“Roger that, team leader.”

The Lions took off and Keith opened a private channel with Lance. “Hey Lance, can we talk for a minute?  
“Yeah.” Lance said, curiously.  
“Are you all right?”  
“Yeah, just fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”  
“I saw you, when the other were making fun of you. You seemed to take it pretty hard.”  
“Oh, that’s just normal. I’m used to it by now. That isn't something the leader of Voltron should be worried about.”  
“But I am worried about it, because it concerns my right-hand man.”  
Lance seemed to squirm a little under Keith’s gaze. “I’m not worth it, Keith.”  
“Worth what?”  
“Being your right-hand man. I mean the only reason I’m in Red anyway is to replace you.”  
“Stop right there. Lance, You are not my replacement.”  
Lance continued to not make eye contact with Keith.  
“Lance, are you listening?”  
Lance slowly brought his face back to Keith.  
“Lance, you are the paladin of the Red Lion. Red chose you. You are also the Lance that always has my back, even when I don’t deserve it. AND you are also the Lance that knows exactly who he is and what he’s got to offer.”  
Lance smiled a hesitant smile which faded as he voiced his next thought. “I..I’m not really sure I know all of those things, Keith.”  
“Then we’ll figure it out together, all right?”  
Lance seemed to think about his answer. “All right, Keith. Together.”  
“Perfect, oh and Lance.”  
“Yeah?”  
“You left the rope attached to Red.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed that. Please leave a comment telling what you enjoyed. Comments are amazing that way! If you liked this, I have some other works on Fanfiction and you can go check those out. Who knows, I might move them over here someday.


End file.
